Sweet shots. If I had to guess I would say that those were both males on the ground together...females have tawny underparts (as in the top photo), which you should be able to see on the flank of the bird with its back to us. Great stuff!

Most excellent!! 'Been waiting for the Barn Owl post and it didn't disappoint. Very inspiring for my upcoming Barn Owl camera trapping project- got my new IR trail cam yesterday (thanks for the advice) & had it out last night to test- normally wouldn't say this but hope the skunks visited last night!!

Great photos for a barn owl freak like me. Possibly these are siblings. We found with our live video cam in Nicasio, this past summer, that after fledging the siblings continued to associate with each other for some time. They also sometimes fed and groomed each other and clearly greeted each other. I love all your photos from this wonderful place. Maggie, http://www.hungryowl.org

i cannot tell you how thrilled i am to view these photos. It seems as though a whole new genre of natural history is exploding into the personal lives of animals we mostly knew from a corpse in a museum special. I so want to start something like you are doing in my back yard where all sorts of things are at play in the night; also the 140 acres of farmland that i oversee as a farm manager. Just around the corner is the time; have to buy a camera first as i'm unwilling to get tied up in the cheaper hardware with so much pottery stuff on my plate. thanks Chris for all the beautiful photos and captions.THE DIPO'S AND BARN OWLS ARE STUNNINGed

Outstanding photos of my very favorite bird of all time.I agree with 2 males and a beautiful "golden" female. I have seen young fledgling Barn Owls in captivity interacting in a similar manner. I have also observed Barn Owls walking and hopping in pursuit of live mice in a flight cage.